Call for Papers - NoCOUG 2011

North California Oracle User Group are planning their 2011 conferences and are looking for good presentations!

We are a very friendly local user group, so if you live in NorCal and never presented before – this is a great place to start! We love seeing new presenters and we even have a public speaking expert on our board who loves giving feedback when requested. Of course, we are nice to seasoned gurus too.

We are especially interested in the following topics:

MySQL
MySQL high availability, scalability and replication.
Datawarehouse design and implementation
Parallel queries
RAC and other scalability solutions
Dataguard and other HA solutions
Golden Gate
Performance, tuning and optimization
Automation. With and without Grid Control

Since we have 4 conferences a year, here’s how the paper selection process goes:

Look at our planned conference dates (see below) and choose one of more conferences where you’d like to present
Write a short abstract describing your presentation (around 300 words), a short biography, including your previous speaking experience (if any) and which conferences you’d like to present in.
Go to NoCOUG’s email form and send us everything you wrote for step #3: https://nocoug.org/contact_us.html?recipient=chen
Two month prior to the conference you chose, you will receive an email from me or my minions (also known as NoCOUG track leads) letting you know when you’ll be presenting. If your plans changed, this is an excellent time to let us know.
Two weeks prior to the conference you will receive another reminder and a polite request to send us your slides and papers.

When are the conferences?

Winter conference – February 24 at Carr-America conference center at Pleasanton, CA.
Spring conference – May 19 at Oracle HQ. Redwood Shores, CA
Summery conference – August 18 at Chevron. San Ramon, CA
Fall conference – November 17 at Oracle HQ. Redwood Shores, CA

Top Reasons to Present at NoCOUG?

I’ve presented at a lot of conferences, including some of the biggest and most prestigious. NoCOUG has the friendliest, most engaged, most experiences and brightest audience ever. We laugh even at hints for jokes. We ask questions. We comment. We care.
If you suspect that you may enjoy speaking at conferences, speaking at a local usergroup is the best way to try and find out.
Speaking experience is excellent in your CV. Potential employers will immediately see that you are passionate, you share your knowledge, you have excellent soft skills and you are not afraid to stretch your comfort zone.
Not only do you get to attend the conference for free, you will also get invited to a special speakers dinner the night before where you’ll get to dine and chat with the top experts we invite to our conferences. Ever had dinner with 3 oak-table members and 5 Oracle ACEs? This is your chance.
You contribute your knowledge to the Oracle user community and you get to network with large number of smart and experienced DBAs, all of them will think you are an expert because you are a presenter.

I don’t need to be convinced – I presented at NoCOUG conferences at least once a year for the last 2 years. You, on the other hand, are completely missing out if you don’t send your abstract. We are looking forward to hear your stories and experiences in our conference.